Mass Effect 3

[Chimeray]

I don´t think they loose 20-30% (or whatever the rate is) customers for not releasing the game on Steam... So the cost they don´t have to pay as royalties to Steam is now going straight in their own pockets, minus the loss of customers. All in all, I´m betting it nets them more money so I suppose it actually makes sense and is "fair" in a way. You get all the money for the effort, Steam gets none.

The only question is why they don´t just release it on both platforms then. The Origin sales would give them a higher profit, the Steam sales... well, like usual. It would be sweet indeed, but then what´s the point :/ People would just buy it off Steam and then you loose so much money on that outrageous royalty.

So yup, as inconvenient as it is... As long as Steam doesn´t lower its royalty rate I think every publisher should have its own platform. Boom, I said it.

But yes, Puddy, good points. I suppose we can only guess if it´s actually worth it... Steam does indeed give a way higher exposure...

[Jake Gilla]

I don´t think they loose 20-30% (or whatever the rate is) customers for not releasing the game on Steam... So the cost they don´t have to pay as royalties to Steam is now going straight in their own pockets, minus the loss of customers. All in all, I´m betting it nets them more money so I suppose it actually makes sense and is "fair" in a way. You get all the money for the effort, Steam gets none.

There is, however, the cost of developing and supporting Origin.

At least for now, my guess is they're probably netting the same amount they would if their games were on Steam, except now they have more control over there products, and can collect better data on their customers.

[Serenius]

Any publisher would be stupid to not have their own top-notch digital distribution system. Trying to make it the only way to use their products? Only time will tell if that works out in their favor.

[Skjalg]

Im glad steam is getting a real competitor. Right now its just suffering from the same "early-bugs" as steam did back when it was first launched and we just have to suffer through it.

[Jetsetlemming]

i'm also beginning to think that the reason why ea pulled their shit from steam was that valve wouldn't let them link into origin somehow. i'm still dumbfounded over the decision.

EA basically wanted to treat Steam like Steam treats other DD sources- you buy the game, activate it in Steam, and never look at the original source again. Valve wants you constantly looking at Steam, checking the store, seeing their sales, etc. So does EA with Origin. The fight isn't over how and where you launch the game, it's over what software and its related storefront has your eyeballs when you're thinking of videogames. I think both Valve and EA's positions on this fight are pretty reasonable and self serving. Maybe not in the best interests of the customers, of course, who would do best with a) choice, and b) Origin being less retarded. But since when have corporations acted in the public interest?

[Sentura]

don't get me wrong, i'm glad to see a competitor to steam as well. the reason i am not installing/using origin, is that i don't need another copy of steam nested in my memory only to play less than a handful of games. i don't understand how they could be thinking "oh right, people will definitely want another game browser and store IN ADDITION to steam". it's like whenever there's a new mmo out and it basically copies world of warcraft. what the hell is the point? you create a lesser version of something already in existence, then of course people aren't going to use it over the better version... especially if the better version has existed for years. and blackmailing users into installing it by making games exclusive to the distribution platform? how about instead of forcing your potential customers to use your distribution platform, you actually make a distribution platform that people WANT to use?

[Jetsetlemming]

I wish more people used Gamersgate (or, alternatively, Gamersgate was better at selling itself). The storefront's their website, and you download and install games and run them directly. But the problem there is that Gamersgate customers have no reason to regularly revisit Gamersgate after buying their game, since seeing GG's website/store is not necessary to play their game after it's installed. This hurts their ability to sell shit to people, something Valve clearly does not have a problem with. EA wants to have Steam, they don't want to have Gamersgate. This is pretty understandable when you look at the scale of sales figures.

Still, Gamersgate's pretty sweet. Lots of obscure eastern games and indie bullshit. It's where I bought Pathologic! Steam doesn't have no fucking Pathologic!

[Puddy]

To be fair Sentura, Origin isn't as intrusive as it may seem at first. Whenever I play bf3, origin launches automatically when I join a server. As soon as I'm done, I exit origin.

When I played Dead Space 2 on origin, it didn't work. So I just played the game through the .exe in the folder. Didn't even have to run Origin. In fact, I added it as a non-steam game in Steam.

[Sentura]

I wish more people used Gamersgate (or, alternatively, Gamersgate was better at selling itself). The storefront's their website, and you download and install games and run them directly. But the problem there is that Gamersgate customers have no reason to regularly revisit Gamersgate after buying their game, since seeing GG's website/store is not necessary to play their game after it's installed. This hurts their ability to sell shit to people, something Valve clearly does not have a problem with. EA wants to have Steam, they don't want to have Gamersgate. This is pretty understandable when you look at the scale of sales figures.

Still, Gamersgate's pretty sweet. Lots of obscure eastern games and indie bullshit. It's where I bought Pathologic! Steam doesn't have no fucking Pathologic!

funny, i was thinking of an example of how it could be done otherwise and this was basically what i came up with. i guess one way to keep people coming back to the store would be to advertise it, like putting in a pre game advert saying, "yadda yadda bought to you from GG, visit yadda yadda". but of course, it's not anywhere near as coherent or as elegant as having a DDP with a store program. the the problem lies in the contrast between having a program only for a store, and having said program minimize the impact on user experience and system resources. i don't know how to solve this, but then i'm not the one getting paid presumably thousands of dollars to think this shit up.

[Bunglo]

At the moment, I don't consider origin a competitor to steam. The only reason anyone uses it is because you have to if you want to play new EA games. When EA can release a game on both origin and steam while observing that a large chunk of the buyers are willfully using origin, that's when I'll start to consider origin as a viable competitor to steam.

ME3 looks pretty sweet and I don't mind it being origin only, I bought BF3 and have to use origin, can't see my experience will be much worse (not that it's bad to begin with.)

[Vilham]

Don't care enough about mass effect to bother buying it on origin. BF3 is likely to be the only game I ever get on origin.

[knj]

I must say that after playing the demo i want to finish the ME2, looking really good

and the scene with the kid was for me a killer

[syver]

[Jetsetlemming]

Manshep run animation is just as bad. Dude goes about the normandy like he's got a load in his pants. Not terribly surprising, since the normandy men's room only has two toilets, but still he should probably go clean himself up during the loading screen.

[PogoP]

Loved the first game; thought the second game was alright; not buying the third.

TRILOGIES SUCK. Except Lord of the Rings. And Star Wars. And Alien.